On Beech Road 44 years ago looking for a second hand telly and electric fire

This is another of those images of the more recent past and one that plenty of people will remember.

Picture; from the collection of Lawrence Beedle, circa 1980

One hundred years of one house in Well Hall part 18 ........... driving the coach to the Italian Lakes

This is the continuing story of one house in Well Hall Road and of the people who lived there including our family.*

Now it is that time of year again and we are thinking of a summer holiday.

It’s an attractive thought given that the rain is coming down like stair rods.

Of course not that we ever went far when we lived in Well Hall.

From spring till the end of the summer dad drove coaches across mainland Europe from France to Italy with an option on Belgium, Holland and Switzerland.

It was a job he had dome since the 1920s and from sometime around 1952 began talking discerning travellers on holidays, seeing the sights and getting a flavour of Brussels, Paris and Milan.

I say faraway places but for most people back in the 1950s and early 60s the Italian Lakes was far away.

All of which left me and my sisters with holidays in Derby with our grandparents.

Today, for us Italy has a special place given that half the family are Italian and so it is a natural choice most years as a place to visit.

And that of course got me thinking of the people who also lived in 294 from when it was built in 1915 till we moved settled there in the March of 1964.

The previous owners immigrated to Canada and until I have done lots more research on the other families I think Canada will be the furthest destination for any of the previous occupants.

Not that I am surprised.  Holiday opportunities for most people during the 20th century were limited and it was not till the coming of cheap air flights and package holidays that most of us could contemplate that far away break in the sun.

Location; Well Hall & Chorlton

Pictures;  Il Broletto from the collection of Andrew Simpson

*One hundred years of one house on Well Hall Road,
https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/One%20hundred%20years%20of%20one%20house%20in%20Well%20Hall

Eighty-six years in the story of the Rec on Beech Road

I don’t usually do then and now pictures, and certainly not without a story, but today I shall.

Here are two both from the Wilton end of the Rec.

They are separated by about 80 years, and in the interval we had a bowling green which many remember, but not me.

Location; Chorlton

Pictures; on the Rec, sometime in 1900 from the Lloyd Collection and again in 1980 from the collection of Andrew Simpson

One hundred years of one house in Well Hall part 17 ........... the Gas Board

This is the continuing story of one house in Well Hall Road and of the people who lived there including our family.*

It is funny how the names of things stay with you, long after events have rendered them obsolete and consigned to history.

So, it is with the Gas Board, which was created just a year before I was born, and lasted until I was fully grown.

To be accurate there were twelve gas boards covering the country, and they had been created in 1948 by the Labour Government which nationalized the 1,062 privately owned and municipal gas companies.  They were  the Eastern, East Midlands, Northern, North Eastern, North Thames, North West, Scottish, Southern, South Eastern, South West, Wales, and West Midlands. Each area board was divided into geographical groups or divisions which were often further divided into smaller districts.

Ours was the South Eastern Gas Board, and here is the meter card for our house.

Not that we paid for our gas by slot meter.  Dad had switched to paying quarterly, and so this payment card belonged to one of the previous owners, who was a G. Broome.

That said I do remember the chap who came to read the meter at regular intervals, a practice which lasted well into this century.

After which we opted to read it ourselves and send the reading in online and this in turn was replaced by a device which did it for us, and now by Hive, that box of tricks which pretty much does it all.

Despite all this buzzy technology I have never quite got round to referring to our gas provider by their name, and still talk of the Gas Board.

But then I also still talk about the wireless when everyone else calls it a radio.


Location; Well Hall

Pictures; the Gas Board  Slot Meter Record Card, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

*One hundred years of one house on Well Hall Road, http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/One%20hundred%20years%20of%20one%20house%20in%20Well%20Hall

Out to East Didsbury from Albert Square ……. on the new tram

I say the new tram, because quite clearly this wasn’t the old fashioned tall stately tram which rattled its way around the city at the start of the last century.

This was the new tram car.

The first  of which was completed in the March of 1930.  By the end of the year another eleven were in service.

In all 38 were built during the next two years, with the last of them appearing in October 1932.*

They were the Pullman, or more commonly called Pilcher, after Mr. Robert Stuart Pilcher, who took over as General Manager of Manchester Corporation Tramways in 1929.

Location; Manchester







Picture; Albert Square to East Didsbury, date unknown, from the collection of Allan Brown

*The Manchester Tramways, Yearsley, Ian & Groves Peter, 1988

Remembering the Spanish Civil War

 

Travels with a badge collection ……. three decades of silly and angry protest

Today I have been looking at my old badge collection which starts in 1966 and peters out in the late 1990s.

Upset Her, 1980

Sadly, there are only 70 or so left, having lost, discarded or given away a heap more.

Smirks Against Travolta, circa 1980

Some are campaign badges, some reflect contemporary issues and a few are just silly like my “Smirks against Travolta” badge.

And the equally silly "Dog Lovers Against the Bomb".

Thinking back to the campaign badges which cover about half of the collection the tally of successful against failures is about even.

One day I will explore each campaign but for now I am drawn to those directed against the Tory Governments from 1979 to 1997, and in particular those which featured Mrs. Thatcher.

She was Prime Minister from 1979 till 1990, and she divided opinion and for some of us still does.  

That said it is important I think to recognise that she was in a sense the figurehead for a series of political and economic ideas and a powerful section of the establishment.

Remember The Milk, 1971

Given the majorities the Conservatives commanded in Parliament those political and economic ideas were steadily advanced, and I guess that explains the large number of badges directed against Mrs. Thatcher.  

Some in the collection predate her time as Prime Minister and harp back to her time as Education Secretary in the early 1970s but most were produced in the 1980s.

And it is as well to remember just how the simple badge machine revolutionized the business of protest.

No longer did you have to rely on the expensive and old-fashioned process of producing enamelled metal badges, instead you could turn out hundreds in a  relatively short time at home changing the message and the issue as was needed.

Most of the finished products were unsophisticated and at times quite rudimentary but they did the business. Looking back at mine I marvel at just how many campaigns there were that I slid into.

But I suspect my involvement in many was just to buy the badge, and wearing it till the next issue burst forth.

Swamp Thatcher, 1984

Although with those directed against Mrs. Thatcher I was pretty persistent in showing them off on coats and jumpers.

With the passage of time, I do question the degree to which they personalized politics and while some were funny many more were vicious.

Not that such attacks are new, you only have to go back to the works of James Gillray and William Hogarth in the 18th century to appreciate that the caricatures of Mrs. Thatcher come from a long line of political satire.

And that is it.

Less a statement on today’s politics or my own opinions and more a reflection of what once was, which is just as it should be for a history blog.

PS The Milk Snatcher’s badge was being given away at “The Milk Snatcher’s Ball” held at UMIST sometime in 1971.  Equally notable on the night was the sight of me and my flat mate Jack wearing baby doll nighties which we had borrowed from the girls in the flat above. But that story is for another day.

Dog Lovers Against the Bomb, 1984

Location; some time between 1970 and 1988.

Pictures; Upset Her, 1980, Labour Party, Smirks Against Travolta, circa 1980, Remember the Milk Snatcher, 1971 unknown, Swamp Thatcher, the SWP circa 1984, Dog Lovers Against the Bomb, circa 1984, unknown, from the collection of Andrew Simpson